Extreme points of Antarctica
Appearance
- Tallest Mountain in Antarctica is Vinson Massif. Height: 4,897 metres (16,077 feet)
- The farthest point of land from any coastline on the Antarctic Continent is located at 85°50'S, 65°47'E. This is also known as the South Pole of relative inaccessibility.
- The highest non-cyclonic winds ever recorded on the Continent (and the world) is at Commonwealth Bay (66º54´S 142º40´E) which is about 48 km (30 mi) wide located at the entrance between Point Alden and Cape Gray in the Australian Antarctic Territory. Winds regularly exceed 200 miles per hour here.
- Antarctica is the Southernmost land mass on Earth. The Geographical South Pole lies on the Polar Plateau at 90° S Latitude. It is here that the southernmost human habitation on Earth is located: Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (U.S. Administered Base).
- Highest temperature so far recorded in Antarctica: 14.6°C (58.3°F) at Vanda Station (New Zealand administered station) on 5 January 1974
- Lowest temperature so far recorded in Antarctica: -89.2°C (-128.6°F) at Vostok (Russian administered station) on 21 July 1983
- Vostok is the most isolated research base on the continent (located at 77° S 105° E), and it is situated over the southernmost lake in the world: Lake Vostok: a subglacial lake 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) under the surface of the ice where the station sits.
- Antarctica has the world's lowest rainfall average (Zero at the Geographic South Pole) and thus is the world's dryest continent.
- Despite it's zero rainfall, Antarctica has approximately 90% of the world's fresh water (as ice).
- The southernmost volcano on the planet - Mount Erebus - is in Antarctica on the world's southernmost island: Ross Island.
- The Ross Sea is the southernmost sea in the world, with it's southernmost extremity (Gould Coast) at the foot of the Horlick Mountains approximately 200 miles from the Geographic South Pole.
- The northernmost extremity of Antarctica is the Antarctic Peninsula. This is the only part of the continent that lies above the Antarctic Circle and thus has most of the continent's research bases. The tip of the peninsula is 670 mi (1,078 km) from Cape Horn. The continent's only flowering plants are found on the peninsula. Elephant Island is at the tip of the peninsula.